Welcoming a New Era with a Human Touch

BY KATHLEEN A. PROVOST, CFRE, MAdEd

As a professional fundraiser, I believe we are in the “business” of building relationships, so I always seek to better understand how to improve these human relationships. Over the last few years, I have journeyed, as many of you, through numerous political and socio-economic factors that have impacted philanthropic relationships.

Today, I think we need to give priority to relationships and collaborations in an effort to co-produce learning and evaluations that can be shared and managed by fundraisers and donors. More importantly, I believe we need to commit to understand how each of our actions and strategy developments can result in furthering our mutual trust and accountability towards one another. This will ensure a healthy relationship by, maybe, giving our relationships a more “human touch”.

Responding in a different manner

In her January 12, 2023 Blog, entitled Hopes, Fears and A Wild Guess for 2023, Hilary Pearson caused me to reflect on key fundamentals of relationship building between donors and the charity they support. Pearson agrees with Phil Buchanan of the Centre for Effective Philanthropy when he said, “there is no dichotomy between strategy, assessment, evidence, and learning on the one hand, and trust, listening and flexible support on the other”. In my opinion, this illustrates a natural evolution in the philanthropic relationship from a “business transaction” to a more “humanistic rapport” between donors and charities.

In Canada, the overlying challenges of recent years have forced philanthropic relationships to be more trusting, more flexible, and more responsive. This behaviour is also seen south of the border in the USA. Mackenzie Scott, American billionaire philanthropist and novelist exemplifies this trend towards more trustful relationships by donating more than $14 billion to some 1,600 non-profit organizations without any formal application process and no strings attached.

Looking at the two sides of the relationship

Current donors are placing a greater importance on developing mutual trust and embracing accountability. A number of charities and non-profits have demonstrated their ability to pivot in an attempt to address some of the problems that arose during the pandemic. Some charities and non-profits have both knowledge and expertise on key issues in our sector. With these new perspectives, we find ourselves in a new era of human interaction.

The human perspective of the donor

Donors generously make donations to solve problems. They want to feel their donation will make a difference because it gives them hope. Shared values in the philanthropic relationship will motivate donors to give. Hence, as we develop our relationship with a donor, it is imperative for us, the fundraiser, to explain the problem we are addressing as well as a proposed solution. By clearly conveying the impact the gift will make, it is possible to further develop accountability.

This later statement may sound obvious; however, the data says differently. In a November 2022 report, entitled 20 for ’23, Blakely and Leger along with Google conducted a research in an attempt to discover emerging trends in the charitable sector between 2019 and 2022. They surveyed both Canadian & American donors. Blakely’s findings highlighted the need for charities to be explicit when proposing solutions to donors, so as to ensure trust is built. Many of these donors have also pivoted and continued to donate to charities during the pandemic and are now wondering: “What’s next?”

In their research, Blakely stated that “Eight in 10 donors feel charities will be important in solving some problems arising from the pandemic over the next few years.” Additionally, to building a trustful relationship, it is imperative to be accountable to these donors. Donors have agreed to be more flexible, or less controlling with their philanthropy in response to the pandemic, a behaviour sometimes referred to as the “bridge process”. Now these donors want to assess if their funds are addressing key issues which emerged during the pandemic. However, according the 20 for ’23 report, “49 percent of donors generally understand the problem, but not what the donation will solve. And 46 percent generally understand the problem and the solution but are unclear as to what the donation will be used for”.

The human perspective of the charity

The philanthropic sector is facing an unprecedented demand for services, financial vulnerabilities, and a human resources crisis. Paired with current inflation rates and an eminent recession, we now find ourselves in the postpandemic era in which we need to develop news rules of engagement as we build our relationships. As our country reopens and we are heading towards a promise of normalcy, whatever the new normal looks like, I have concerns about how this period of intense stress has affected a charitable sector already dealing with high levels of stress and burnout.

On January 10, 2023 in The Philanthropist Journal, Surabhi Jain, Executive Director of the Workforce Funder Collaborative, said: “the nonprofit community, on the whole, needs to step up its game because the sector is failing to invest in the career development of its staff”. As a fundraiser, I am very much aware of the impact this pandemic has had in changing my relationship with donors. Given that our cultivation strategies with donors needed to adapt, I question if our sector also adapted. In my opinion, there are two specific areas of the charitable sector that needs attention.

First, I question if the individuals who work in this sector are being well equipped to do their work. We hear conversations about resilience, seen as a process of successfully adapting to challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioural flexibility in an effort to adjust to external and internal demands. So, if we are to build relationships with donors, I wonder if all of us involved in the charitable sector, fundraisers, front liners, volunteers and other individuals have what we need to build our own resiliency? In an effort to work on my resiliency for instance, I started to paint. I do not think I will ever become an artist, but this activity has forced me to pause the “logistical side of my brain” in favour of using the “creative side of my brain”. It has helped me “reenergize” at times when I most needed it.

Second, I question if we are marginalizing certain groups within our

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